Brand new feature peeps, hopefully more consistent than the ones I made in the past.

Conversation with my Sister is a non-regular feature at AEROPAPERS where I share topics that I discussed with my sister that are related to books, anime & manga, and maybe something else but mostly around those two. *winks*

I told you I’m coming up with a new feature, well, this is it! My sister and I, we share a lot of things (aside from our DNA ) particularly fandoms. We are both otaku and bookworms. It’s nice that I have someone I can discuss about things that I’m more used to share online. As you can see, I don’t have any friends who are into anime & manga and books like I do. She’s the only one I can freely talk about these things (sometimes my other younger sister). And we discuss a lot (mostly me and she’s the sounding board). And then I realized that we have very interesting topics (as of writing I already have 3 topics in mind courtesy of our latest discussion). And with her permission, I decided to share it to y’all.

As for my debut post, I’ll share you my our long discussion about villains. I saw this youtube video (which I can no longer find the link, gaaah, loved his explanations though) and this person talked about his top five favorite villains in anime. In which I raved told my sister about it. I don’t know the other three he mentioned but the top two I’m familiar with: Father from Full Metal Alchemist and Light Yagami from Death Note. But it’s not his selection that piqued my interest it is how he thinks of villains. He said that villains see themselves as protagonist of their own story. And that statement is actually true. That we only see them through the protagonist’s eyes so we have limited understanding on who they really are. The two villains this youtuber mentioned, he said that their objectives were actually noble at first: Father wanted knowledge and Light wanted a peaceful world to protect his family. Isn’t interesting how their principles which are good in the beginning are what drove them to who they are now—villainous? I have lots of favorite villains in anime and manga: I liked the Millenium Earl from D Gray Man; Light Yagami as well; most of the villains who turned allies in Katekyo Hitman Reborn (especially Mukuro Rukodo), Buggy the Clown from One Piece, etc. I realized then that when I read manga, I’m also invested in the villain’s development in the story and this led me to this thought slash question:

“How come I don’t have a lot of favorite villains in books I read?”

Despite reading a lot of books, I can only remember two villains that I’m actually interested: one is Avery from the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent and Adam Rosier from The Eternal Ones by Keirsten Miller. I realized that villains in the books I read didn’t have that solid character I want. They are (1) there to give conflict to the protagonist (which is the very obvious reason why they are there) (2) weak character development (3) they fell in love with the female protagonist.

Ok, so I might be a little guilty with the last one but in my defense I never saw Warner as the villain, slight anti-hero tendencies, yes, but not the villain. Oh maybe the Darkling but I’m not a big fan of Greisha Trilogy. But getting back, these things made me think a lot. I don’t know, but somehow I wanted a villain who isn’t just this cliché bad person giving the hero a hard time but also a character with a story—solid story with solid motivations.

I remember Eichiiro Oda creator of One Piece and the reason why he doesn’t kill off his villains. According to him:

“Oda explains that it’s not a question of morality so much as a matter of punishing the villains for their crimes—he feels that killing the villains let them off too easily, whereas he considers letting them live to see their dreams ruined a far more fitting punishment.” (*)

—SBS One Piece Manga — Vol. 4, fan question: Why does not Luffy kill his enemies?

I liked the way he thinks of his villains and I do get his point that living with his objectives crushed is far worst fate than death. At least that’s how I understand of how Oda sensei thinks of the villains’destiny.

Of course my opinion is only based on the books I read so far. It’s not the villains in those books are weak (ok, maybe in my standard they are) but they are hardly memorable to me. I wanted a villain that if I refocus the spotlight to this character, he/she also has a story to tell. Aren’t villains very important characters as well? They shouldn’t be just the heroes’ bane of existence…or vice verse. Or just simply the conflict maker. They need proper characterization and development, too.

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Suggested Book:

Vicious (Vicious #1) by Victoria Schwab
Book Review • Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This book has superheroes but their methods & goals are ones I normally associated with villains. One of the heroes has objective which was neither black or white. Go read it, it’s really awesome.

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How about you, who are your favorite villains (books, movie, mangas, anime, TV)? What do you think of villains in general? What makes a character a villain? Care to share it with me?